E 
4*3 



H A M 1 L T O N 



T H E 

NEBRASKA OFFENCE 




THE NEBBASKA OFFEtfC*,, 



A SERMON . 



TORCHED m 'THE PRESBYTER!^ CHURCH. OVID, 



7 UN a 4, 13H 



BY REV. L; 'II A MIL TON. 



077D, IT. T,: 

tsSKfut t's cokyuojj KA:r.cn»La. 

1SS4. 



M- 



CORRESPONDENCE 



EV. It. Hamilton, 

Dear Sir : — Northern Slavery is a hideous ulcer feeding upon the vitals of 
the commonwealth. Nothing iu our opinion can remove the loathsome thing but the 
keenest Scalpel. We rejoice in the successful operation you performed on Sabbath 
last and sincerely believe that great good will be the result. 

Bclicviug that the publication of your discourse will be beneficial we request a 
copy for publication. 



June 10th, 1854. 
JOHN I. CORNELL. - 
T. SANFORD DOOLITTLF. 

LFRED BOLTER, 
I )HN B. BLISS, 
T. R. LOUNSBURV. 
WILSON GRAY, 
JOSEPH WILSON, 
W. S. REED, 
J. B. THOMAS, 
CHARLES M. WARING, 
MARTIN L. EVERETT, 



JOHN E. SEELEY, 
THADDEUS BO DINE, 
GORDIS DUNLAP, 

D. HERRON, 
ARCHIMEDES GRAY, 
JOHN A. HUNT, 
WILLIAM H. BREWER, 
A. S. PURDY, • 

E. C. HOWELL, 
M. WEAVER, 
GEORGE SMITH 



Ovid, June 10th, 1854, 
Gentlemen : — I have received your letter, expressing your approbation of my 
sermon on the Nebraska Bill, and requesting a copy for publication. I comply with 
your request willingly, yet, I think, without vanity. That it is the truth, I firmly 
believe. That it ought to be spoken, I am as firmly persuaded. That it would be 
acceptable to all, I have not dared to hope ; yet am not without hope, that a more 
thorough review, which its publication will make possible, will procure for it a more 
candid consideration. In any case, I shrink not from the responsibility of having the 
sentiments it contains, known in this community as my own. I have consulted none 
but God and my own conscience, as to what I should speak, or whether I should 
speak. It is the honest expression of my opinions and feelings. As such I am 
willing it should be printed, praying that God may give success to the right. 

Very truly yours, 

L. HAMILTON, 
Hon. John E. Seeley, and others. 



SERMON. 



Lt;ke xvii. 1. — It i* iatpombU but that offences will come ; lut wo unto him through i-honi tljy cottx. 
Psxlu. lxxvi. 10. — Surely (he wrath of man shall praise tkee ; the ret, '..u restrain. 

When men die we preach their funeral sermons. The custom arises rtainly, not 
we think from a desire to honor the dead, for this $he truth will not always permit 
us to do, but from the conviction that the event of death, although sad, has sneh bear- 
ings upon life that it affords profitable matter of reflection to the living. It concerns 
us to know what meaning death has for our practical life, and what consolations may 
sustain us under its visitations. And when it comes under circumstance's that bring 
out its native dreadfulness in such dark perfection, that not one softening shade of 
light mitigates its terrors, it does not on this account impress its meaning with the 
less power, nor leave us in less need of legitimate consolations. It may be less pleas- 
ant, but will not be less profitable for our contemplation. Although we cannot re- 
voke the decree of Providence and recall the dead to life, we may gain wisdom and 
incitement to rightly regulate, and earnestly improve, what of life remains to u$.~- 
We may thus compel good from what would otherwise be unmingied and unmitigated 
evil. And who will doubt the wisdom of doing this ? 

When the honor of a nation dies, a calamity has befallen its citizens in which sober 
wisdom finds the occasion fur most serious, sad, yet, it may be, practically profitable, 
reflections". The death of no individual, however great and honorable he might be, 
could afford such matter for a fuueral sermon'. And all the reasons which justify 
and demand a funeral sermon in any ca.se, by way oFimproving a mournful event 
for the benefit of the living, seem to have a full application in this. 

It is knowu to all of you that the Nebraska Bill has become a law of the land. 
That measure, the announcement of whose proposal in our National Legislature, fell 
upon us like a thunderbolt from the clear sky, and whose discussion has for ausioua 
months held the beating heart of the nation in painful suspense, is consummated. — 
The deed is done. ".^ And the quick, successive peals of cannon, booming from Capitol 
Hill, announcing its triumph, have sounded to me like the death-rattle of cur expiring 
national integrity. I cannot, therefore, regard it as a desecration of the eaered offieo 
which I bear, nor of the place where I stand, nor of the holy time in which we aro 
met to worship God, to make this event, in its moral and religious aspects, the theme 
of our present contemplation. In this view, if I do not err, it closely concerns lis 
as individuals, not only in our dearest rights, but also in our most solemn obligations. 
It? politicafl bearings, and evfcn the question of its abstract justice," I leave for dis- 



I stesman and tl moral philosopher. To discuss the event iu these 

comes not within the proper province of the pulpit. But that 

the i. v landrelig and rigb( in the great, feeling masses of 

\j outraged by this measure, admits not of quea- 
tbl Aa a wrong thus touehiug tin- conscience, I cannot but feel it my 
dut f pit. 

The thing baa become a/act — a thing done — a certainty past all hope of recall. 

iportance that we know in what spirit we should 

Ives under it ; whal s ' »ur fcountry, for the cause of univer- 

the kingdom of Christ, its indications are the reasonable ground 

cially, what .-acred obligations n presses home upon wjas individuals. 

. pee, I wards the attainment of this important knowledge is my 

■ . pe and aim. 

The text I ha\ . famishes a point from which to start, and opens a way 

rhich to advance, in order to reach this object. The two verses of which 

it is nt a full and single thought. They first assert a fact ; then in- 

timat e direct consequences affecting the individual ; and finally exhibit the 

sni ral result which Divine direction and restraint will bring out 

of that fact. 

ints in their order, with a view to their direct application 
:ti hand. 
I. The fact asserted; viz: That offences aic inevitable. It is impossible 
but that offences will come. 

The human heart is wicked — prone to wrong. It is sure to act out its nature. — 
But not only is the- individual heart wicked, and must work 
out his w: in the individual's actions : the individual is a type of the coin- 

mun;tv, and of the nation. Depravity steams forth from the thousand, and the mil- 
lion individual hearts, and taints the entire mass. Sin becomes organic in society, 
and in the nation ; i. e. h i interwoven with all the pursuits and interests of 

life, that it seems an essential part of the means indispensable to the attainment of 
>■ ends. For example, the votary of fashion, thinks a sinful ex- 
ilutely indispensable to the maintenance of a respectable and iufluen 
\\. The man of business Bemetimes excuses a sort of respectable 
ion in bargain, upon the plea that it is necessary in order to successful 
11 with rivals in trade. The politician may see that the only way to attain 
i honor and power in the Government, i* by conniving at, or ac- 
ilandpolil Particular sins become thus organic 

lism by which BOcietyacts and moves. Now, when this 
ill ci me. "Wrongs will be perpetrated. 
in see their way to them onlj 
thro:. iniquitous mean The organii in the body politic, or the 

ome particular part. An 



unsightly and inflamed tumor •will swell out nn some individual member. The e»il 
will express its strength and virulence in some wrong deed of monstrous, proportion- 
Moreover, such organic evils are progressive. They work on and on. The cor- 
ruption grows deep and deeper. The disease spreads wider and takes a stronger 
hold. Hence reiterated offences of steadily increasing maguitude will come. 1 -" The 
growing evil needs must manifest its growth, in deeds of wickedness towering hicL 
and higher, until some colossal and peerless wrong, overtopping all that, precede, 
proclaims that the disease has reached its climax and its crisis. Offences are inev- 
itable. Such is the fact with respect to the existence and working of wickedness in 
the human heart, and with respect to its working out. 
Let us glance, 

II. At the more direct coyisequences of these offences which affect the individ- 
ual ; viz: the frustration and punishment of the offender. Wo unto him 
through whom the offence comcth. 

The wrongs done will react upon the wrong-doer. Wickedness will overreach it- 
self, and stumble upon its own destruction. No matter that offences are inevitable : 
no matter that they must come. This cannot relieve the offender of his person- 
al responsibility, nor give impunity to his offences. ' If it be .Divinely predetermined, 
and foretold in prophecy, that "The Son of man shall he betrayed," the ''Son of 
perdition" shall not escape the reward of his treachery. Wo, wo to him by 
whom the offence cometh. Wrongs will out ; and God has so made man, and man, 
in spite of himself, so stands affected towards his fellow, that the detected evil-doer 
must be hated by those whom his wickedness wrongs, and despised by those whose 
interests he has sold his conscience to serve- Verily he shall have his reward. 

The truth is so palpable here, as to make the further illustration of this point un- 
necessary. We pass to notice, 

III. What will he the ultimate result of these inevitable offences, viz : 
Through Divine direction and restraint, The Glory of God in the general 
Good. Surely, the wrath of man shall praise thee : the remainder of wrath 
shalt thou restrain, 

God has so wisely constructed His system of government over men, so disposed its 
reforming influences, that it forces good out of evil. The licentiousness of wicked- 
ness, reacts upon and corrects itself. This is true of the individual. The more fu- 
rious the rage of the passionate man, the sooner it spends its force and leaves him 
tame and passionless. The more unbounded the excess of the glutton, the sooner 
he destroys his appetite, and his capacity for further indulgence. And sometimes 
nothing could be more fortunate for one gradually forming an enslaving appetite for 
intoxicating drinks, than the misfortune of being enticed into a debauch so disgrace- 
ful, that returning consciousness awakens the keenest agony of shame and remorse. 
Excess, for a time without restraint, is often the only means of ultimate restraint and 
cure. With full force does this truth apply to those great evils which have become 
organic in society and in the nation. It is only as they get themselves acted out in 



• w\ e people is tarried ur en then;, 

• hing could be more dnneerous 

be left to work on silently and unheeded. 

ral apathy with regard to them! 

bite, have made .the body gross 

, the effort of nature to throw 

• i with bi ' er, and racking fains, and 

' ithetic, lethargy, which 

the fatal malady that is working death in his 

. olitic. Better 

tion, in a violent struggle to throw 

an that a torpor of inactivity and indif- 

life and \ i :1c. There is 

■ I the health of a robust virtue. 

rown iniquities, is only provoked when 

f the evil that is working its 

m, it is a hopeful : i^n, rather than otherwise, when such 

pearanee. It is a bopefhl sign when their increasing 

-e is approaching its crisis. The 

irst effect upon so y, may shake into 

heir authors and abettors, 

hare ■ leave behind them a purified atmos- 

- ! ding pools will no longer 

■ fetid and . zhalations. Through and beyond this 

wreck we can see as the ultimate result, the geueral purity 

of man shall work out the glory of I 

principles, to the particular 
:-ee points as they have been 
l< .". 

: x inevitable. 
me. Let us look into the reasons why. — 
in< f . v; ..v with the ay stem of our general government, when 

we first • roughly into the system, its poison per- 

i the remotest extremities. It is, 
in th' ional organic sin. It has, moreover, shown itself rapidly 

•own more bold in its demands, and more shame - 

trded with but little anxiety < 

into the constitution in 17s7, it* 

. and not the land, was contemplated as the end 

of legislation a at it. And any sin that we think will be soon and 

i was discovered in 182o, 

» j having died oat, was not onlv alive, but flourishing, and 



having a more yitul hold upon the organism of our polis.ic.il Bjsteco. ii Luu grown to 
such strength and importance, that it began to lay plans to perpetuate itself through 
all coining generations. For this purpose, it needed not only room, territory, but 
more especially, a larger representation in our National Legislature, in order that it 
mi^ht be able to cope with the Freedom of the North. It paw plainly, that, under 
the Constitution and plan of Government which unite the North and the South to- 
gether into one organic Body Politic, the Northern States were armed with a power 
that might easily be u»ed to its own detriment, if not destruction. It demanded, 
therefore, a stronger representation. Freedom made a snow of resistance ; and 
Slavery, in order to gain its end, agreed to stay, forever afterwards, on the South 
side of a certain line, duly desiguated. Upon this promise, its demand was complied 
with ; and the conscience of the North, for a time, soothed itself with the idea that 
it had separated itself so far from Slavery as to be free from all further responsibility 
with regard to its existence and workings. The subsequent advances of Slavery, 
have dispelled this illusion. The North has been compelled to learn that as united 
— made one — with the South, by a common Politicnl Organization, it cannot avoid 
sharing the guilt and misery of this great organic sin, without resistance to the death. 
The whole body must suffer, until the cause of inflammation be removed. Slavery 
has grown more painfully sensitive and troublesome, with every effort to soothe and 
pacify its excitability. Concession made to it, has been takeu as a new license to in 
crease the exorbitance of its exactions. It has successively demanded and obtained' 
from the North, among various other less important boons, Texas, the Fugitive Slave 
Law, and now, at last the Nebraska Bill, repealing the Missouri Compromise, and 
erasing the line which was drawn as a barrier to the progress of Slavery Northward. 
But the successive breaking out upon the body politic, only shows how virulent, and 
deep-seated, and rapidly progressive, is the disease itself. What is worse than all 
this, and the secret of its success in obtaining all these extravagant demands, Sla- 
very has regularly, and systematically, controlled our votes and our elections. It 
has dictated to us whom we should choose to rule over us. It is through the throb- 
bing arteries of Political Organizations, that Slavery sends its virus to penetrate and 
corrupt the North. It says to us, "You must help us of the South, place a man be 
fore the people as candidate for the Presidency, who will be devoted to our interests, 
oi- we will combine and defeat him." We yield ; and as the aspirants to less exalted 
and responsible offices in the Government, must hold the same Political opinions 
with their leader, Slavery succeeds in dictating, not only who shall be our principal 
rulers, but, through the inevitable workings of party organizations, often determines 
what shall be the sentiments of men who hold the most insignificant offices in the gift 
of a remote, frontier, township, or village corporation. Such, until within a few 
weeks past, was the tremendous power that Slavery was wielding over us. And so 
long as popular sentiment oonfirmed this power, is it not plain that the demagogue 
who aspired to the Presidential Chair, would not have had even a forlorn hope of 



; ee, as a propitiatory sacrifice, to 

Sfet there arc men who would he President at any expense 

"hat there are such men, existing under the Political influ- 

: . shows plainly why if was impossible but that the Nebraska Of- 

me. The last fact was the certain resultant of the former two. The 

Pr ■'•■''. ■ :. else Slavery must be propitiated. Hence, 

as inevitable. 

- the more immediate consequences of this offence, as they must 

■ individuals. 

iphatically "Wo unto him by whom the offence cometh." You spon- 

• xclaim, "Wo, then, to Douglass," and exclaim rightly if present signs in- 

..1 :i~ l'.'iigla.-s," is said to have become a political proverb. 

At tl thought, yon as naturally exclaim, "Wo, also, to his Coadjutors from 

the North, by whom this offence has come." Here, again, you rightly interpret; 

fort: - re undoubtedly in the majority, who will say that they have 

aealed their own political death-warrant. But this is a comparatively insignificant 

matter. f these individuals, is of little consequence to us. I should not 

haw them at all but for the fear that, under existing circumstances, your 

minds would be diverted to them as the objects of niv aim. I take up the burden of 

this wo in a more important meaning for us, and cry, Wo unto you and to me ! 

Through us, indirectly, this offence has come. Are not you and I guilty of it ? By 

- ■ silence and indifference with respect to the enormous wrong of Slavery in our 

land, has that popular sentiment been formed, through which alone it was possible 

for us to be represented in our great National Council, by men of such political views 

as prompted to the plotting and perpetration of this deed ? By yours and mine.- — 

Had we of the North, been as earnest, vigilant, and conscientious, as we should have 

been, in our op] to Slavery, we should not have been represented, or rather 

represented, there by such opinions. This offence would not have come. It is 

I sufficient excuse for our apathy, that we feared to identify ourselves with the 

fanaticism. We needed to abet no movement that we could not approve. 

needed only to express decidedly and earnestly, the condemnation which our 

! sciences compelled us to pass upon Slavery, and a correct popular sentiment with 

it, would have been formed. But this great organic evil in the body politic, 

silently penetrated and corrupted us. We have not resisted; we have yielded to it. 

rhrough us, therefore, this groat offence has come. Wo unto us ' You and I must 

suffer th( of our culpable indifference. In what particular form our 

punishment may fall upon us, we cannot predict. We think they greatly err as to 

what is either | r desirable, who hope that the "Glorious Union," of which we 

I ' c > much ati'l so justly, can hv long preserved, and the disorganizing element of 

remain a constituent part, working upon its vitals. Can it be hoped that 

Slavery will 1 .,- evil in its nature, lessaotive in its efforts, less exacting in 

ts i ninous in its whole influence'! Can it be supposed, on the other 



H 

hand, that the moral sense of ch« North will become less keenly alive to thw great 
sin, or impel to a less energetic opposition? Who can help but see that these two 
antagonist elements in our Union, are growing, and must grow, in the strength and 
intensity of their hatred, until thoy meet in deadly conflict, and the one or the other 
be vanquished, or a line of separation be drawn between them, which will leave them 
no longer united in one organic whole ? The disease must be purged out, whatever 
agitations or agonies it may cost. What calamities, involving the indmdual inter- 
ests of you and me and every one, both North and South, may attend this process, 
none are wise enough to foretell. That we may be called to suffer in our own per- 
sons, or through our friends, facts are now in evidence. Already has one man in 
Boston experienced the wo decreed against this offence, in the last of earthly calami- 
ties. Others are lying in prison, for the same reason, awaiting their trial upon the 
charge of the highest crime that can be imputed to man. The end is not yet. What 
may lie between us and the consummation, is known to God alone. That it will in- 
volve the wide ruin of individual interests is as plain as it is certain that offences must 
come. 

3. Finally — let us turn our eyes upon the ultimate result to the Nation, and 
to Freedom. 

Here the prospect appears to me bright with hope. God rules. The wrath of man 
shall praise Him ; the remainder of wrath He will restrain. We need not shrink 
from the contemplation of that which is inevitable. We may look at it and be calm. 
I cannot wholly sympathize, humble as I am in position and intellect, with that great 
Statesman, who so feelingly and eloquently, deprecates the disposition, "to hang over 
the precipice of disunion, to see whether with our short sight, we can fathom the 
depth of the abyss below." For my part, I choose to look over before I leap, if leap 
I must, and see, if possible, what chances of safety or life, the perilous descent will 
leave me, or if I must perish, what hopes will remain to Freedom and the Generations 
to come after me. In taking this look, I can see nothing to appal me. Even should 
it be that the "last feeble and lingering glance" of these eyes, should be compelled to 
rest "on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once Glorious Union ; on States 
dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; on a Land rent with civil feuds, or drenched in 
fraternal blood;" still should I not "bate one jot of heart or hope." When the 
waves of passion from the South, shall meet the firm rock of a righteous resistance 
in the North, the more violent the shock, the sooner will their rage be spent. God, 
by an immutable decree, has set their bounds, and put a restraint upon their wrath. 

The echoes of their roaring shall sound back upon us in hymns of Divine praise. 

The more furious their onset, the sooner will they be rolled back to overwhelm and 
bury American Slavery in an eternal grave. And when this source of discord and 
disunion, shall be no more — when the storm of passion arising from it, shall havr> 
cleared away, the paramount advantages of Union, no longer obscured, will reappear. 
The Love of Country, gathering around it the hallowed remembrances of that united 
struggle which gave us our being and our glory as » Nation, will triumph over the 



r 



12 

, | . u in (he ascendant. A dcrj. Fraternal 

nated members ol at Family 

tin. Peace will follow purity ; ami 
to none who eeck a refuge, or 
>me. 

two opon the temper of mind wc 
igupon us, in the present crisis. And, 

lid he calm, for God rules this 

at as. He controls the result. Why should we 

bg i . : little cause for anger as for anxiety, — 

falf into a passion, for passion is ever w< . 
Yet we should fee', intensely. It is 
christian, to look with cold indi 
to feel here. Our calmness should be that 
•aim of a red heat. 
tuld be awake to duty. We have slumbered too long. AVe 
le turn of future events will indicate. What 
we need is a r< . la dispo ize upon occasions as they arise. It is 

illot-box alone, that we can rehuke this wrong, and wound the 
Popular E Must be prepared for the ballot-box. Our 

for it is by our daily words and actions, that 
we c ■ our individual influence to the great ocean of popular senti- 

merr I '■ ■■ '•-''' ■ influence, are we, each, le ; and for us 

individually, the rcsponsibilit;. . light one. Let us seek to know clearly, to 

• and to act wisely, in r^ferenco to this great evil; and so wash our hands 
Hi iauoccDcy. 



